Underworld - Book 7 - Chapter 47

Cassian Gallus led a squad of the fastest men in his company toward the Colossal. Their assortment of elemental armor wasn’t to his liking, but for this type of monster it shouldn’t matter. He counted four soldiers with Earth based mail, three with Fire, and only one with Ice. The more variety, the less likely it was they they’d meet a high-level monster capable of breaking their defensive line.

He wore neutral based platemail himself. It was amongst the rarest of its kind and was much thicker because of the metal required in its construction. The weight was a hindrance to most, but he’d donned it for more than a century. It was his favorite because it was the most versatile.

They been able to see the abomination since they entered this region. Only now that he was within a few miles did he start to slow. The rest of his men followed his lead.

“First Spear,” his supporting officer said. “Are we going to engage?”

It was amongst the largest Colossal he had ever faced, but its level wasn’t high. That could mean many things, and he wouldn’t make any assumptions. “You will remain here and only engage if it tries to retreat.”

A round of gauntlets pounding against breastplates answered in unison.

Cassian removed his twenty-foot, bladed spear from his inventory. A surge of aura flexed the neutral mana of his platemail. He decided that a full helmet would be the best for this nasty business, so he removed and equipped it too.

Taking off at a jog, his strides increased with his speed until he was bounding, traversing dozens of meters with each step.

Killing a Colossal was foul business. The surest way to do it was to cut off one piece at a time and destroy it before the main body could swallow it up again. The difficulty was doing it without getting swallowed yourself. Once you had a high enough Constitution to survive for an extended period of time with sufficient Strength to slice your way out repeatedly, such creatures lost most of their innate danger. Some had other abilities though. The most magically adept were the most dangerous. Thankfully, this one had been a Wererat.

As he was soaring through the air toward its rear, he sent a surge of aura through his spear and thrust out. The mana crescent expanded as it flew, leaving a forty-foot gorge in its flesh he was about to jump into.

He felt the decrease in pressure and the strange intensity coming from the Colossal. As he touched down to take his last bounding stride, he stopped himself instead, and threw all of his strength into pushing himself back.

Whatever it was, it was growing. When he landed, he didn’t go further, but drove his spear downward. The Light Magic spear light exploded when impacting the ground, creating a deep pit that he threw himself in. Just before he sunk beneath, he saw the outline of the enormous monster turning to ash.

 

***

 

A gasp escaped from Aeris’s lips. They’d ventured miles into the Moreerie Grove, but as soon as she felt it, she hurled past the canopy and straight up to the ceiling of the Dungeon Cavern. From there, she saw what she knew she would see. The birth of a star. It was expanding at an ever-increasing rate.

She didn’t watch it with her normal sight. The Wind Mana spectrum kept her eyes safe and gave her the ability to see what was happening.

It wasn’t her husband’s success that had gained her attention. She felt he was gone.

She didn’t even address the others before she called out to the Wind. It helped her just as her own mana concussed, propelling her directly for the growing sphere. She expanded her domain as she flew and commanded the air to project her faster.

The Moreerie Grove was there and gone in the next instant. The necropolis disappeared almost as soon as it came. Before Scorching Sun had even got started, she drew dangerously close. The light was almost too much to see anything, but the Wind spectrum didn’t hide anything from her. What was a star made of except for the most common elements of the air itself.

She saw his body as it fell from the heart of the growing sun. He was there, but he wasn’t. It was just the husk of what was left of her husband.

An instant before she took the plunge to retrieve him, the image of a giant cat flashed and already had her husband’s body in its mouth. Then with a flick of its head, the person was gone. Only a moment later, she saw a boulder of smoking rock flying in her direction. It soared over her head.

She only gave the sweltering image of the Primordial Cat one last glance before she chased after the rock encasing Elorion.

 

***

 

After the massive spell of Light Magic had stabilized, Cassian Gallus dare to jump out of the hollow he’d made in the ground. His aura was already flaring at full power. As he landed, he thrust his spear into the ground, and it became a blazing pillar of defensive Light Mana that he used to shield him from most of the spell’s intensity.

Light Vision made it possible for him to see what had scarcely been seen in a thousand years. He wasn’t a caster himself, but he had as much experience around Artificial Sun as just about anyone alive because almost all high-level Light Mages he’d fought with over the years had it in their arsenal. The spell he was looking at was categorically different.

It was said that the boy had reached Grandmaster, but nothing in their estimations had led him to believe that casting Scorching Sun without a focal lens was even possible. Regardless of how talented the boy was, he didn’t expect to see it in his lifetime.

His jaw flexed in frustration. Forcing his agenda was going to be far more difficult, but that didn’t mean he was disappointed. His entire life had been dedicated to one purpose. Restoring the Illuminated Cathedral to its former glory. As unexpected as this was, it meant that he was one step closer.

The Scorching Sun only lasted for a few short minutes. When its eclipse was inevitable and it began shrinking in size, Cassian Gallus removed his spear from the ground and was returning to his men when he saw a sight that caused him to take a defensive posture.

Beneath the receding sun, he saw a large molten cat rolling around playfully as if it were enjoying the disastrous heat as a mortal cat did catnip.

“A forsaken Primordial,” he grumbled, but a rare grin stretched across his face. It was a monster he knew he couldn’t defeat. That didn’t mean he wasn’t willing to fight it.

Then he frowned as he watched a woman in a black dress skip toward the cat while hold an umbrella. She was tiny in comparison.

Putting his spear away, he stood and watched the pair as they played beneath the still deadly but dying light. He knew his duty—that he was marching into the realm of the enemy. He would do what he must, even if that meant giving up his life.

Turning back, he picked up speed as he ran. It was time he met this young Grandmaster Light Mage, but first he’d return to his men and make sure none of them had received significant damage.

 

***

 

“Are you enjoying yourself?” the Head Mistress of the succubi asked as she hopped from foot to foot.

“I don’t remember the last time I felt such exquisite pain,” Xaphan rumbled as he rolled around trying to absorb as much of the sheering heat as he could while it still lasted.

“Do you think it was a waste now?”

He rolled over a few more times before righting himself to lay on his belly. Then he glared at her. “Only a Daughter of Scorn would do something so obviously foolish. You’ve willfully brought dawn to the Underworld for the first time in a thousand years—and possibly doomed your people. War will reach its arrogant head into the bowels of every realm. Those that somehow survive will be stronger than ever, but what makes you think you can hide this Solar Mage long enough to make use of him? It’s likely he’ll be amongst the first casualties once anyone with true power takes to the field of battle.”

“What makes you think that I intend to hide him?”

“If you’re so willing for him to die, let me devour him. At least then he’ll make a tasty snack.”

The succubi queen laughed. “You’d eat the husband of the Wind Wisp your so fond of?”

He snorted. “My point still stands.”

“Then let me correct my statement. What makes you think that I intend on hiding him here?”

Xaphan tilted his head to the side. “What are you scheming?”

“I’m not as underhanded as you think. I just take advantage of every opportunity. What do you think of the succubus that fought with the Wisp and Solar Mage?”

“The redheaded girl?”

“Yes.”

“She’s exceptional for her age, but her abilities are fairly typical for her kind if not on the rarer side.”

She smiled at that. “And what if I told you she has never tasted of the flesh of men, and isn’t tempted by the cravings that plague my people?”

He was silent as he searched his memory for any such succubus. “She would have to be disciplined to have achieved as much as she has in so few years.”

“Of course, but its not just discipline. I’m not as ancient as you are, Xaphan, but I still remember the days of our bondage. As you so accurately described, I am a Daughter of Scorn. I belong to a race created for the sole purpose of being objects of pleasure. Even our ability to absorb mana was developed as a way for us to stay healthy and beautiful.”

Xaphan stood up. “You figured out how to reverse the succubi and incubi curse?”

The woman’s umbrella disappeared, and she looked up at what was left of the sun as if she were remembering. “No. After all these years, I’ve figured out how to restrain the negative effects while leaving the good. My daughter is the first and only of her kind.”

“Daughter?”

She nodded. “Not that she knows it. Do you really think I’d send her and her bodyguards to the frontlines to die? My plans for them stretch far beyond some little war.”

“Bodyguards. The humans?”

“She has more in common with them than she does with her own people, and they are good natured enough to take her safety seriously.”

“I don’t see the Light Mage willingly breeding with her.”

Her laughter rang out as if it were the funniest thing. “The day may come when she bears her own progeny, but that doesn’t mean I seek the boy as her suitor—as interesting their offspring might be. If creating a new superior race was my real purpose, then I wouldn’t be sending them where I was sending them, now would I?”

“Which is?”

“Leave a schemer some of her secrets.”

“Then why war?”

“To create an environment for them to grow, but also so I can right ancient wrongs. We’re not alone Xaphan. It’s not just the succubi going to war. I’ve raised an army of incubi under the strictest of discipline to manage their insanity, and I have other allies. Will you stick around? This little castle on a hill will soon get very busy.” She motioned toward Sanctuary’s necropolis. “I wouldn’t want you to miss the excitement.”

“So you did all of this just to get me to stick around to protect your new city?”

“No, old friend. I earnestly thought you’d like to be at the center of it all.”

He glanced back to take a look at the mostly undeveloped dungeon. “The center you say?”

“The very heart of every conflict coming to the succubi territory.”

“It’s not like I have any better place to be.”

The girl rose up on her tippytoes and clapped her hands. “Superb. Now how about you return with me for a time. My sisters would like to spoil you a little with a meal. Especially with the light crazed humans heading this way.”

He glanced over to see the group from the Illuminated Cathedral before continuing to ignore them. “Are your sisters just going to fill me up to drain some of my mana when I’m too fat to move?”

“I’ve never heard you complain.”

“What have they prepared?”

“Sometimes secrecy makes things much, much sweeter.”

He grumbled but followed after her.